The Dobzhansky-Muller model of the evolution of postzygotic reproductive isolation involves which of the following (multiple correct answers possible)

Group of answer choices

male-male competition

population divergence in isolation

interacting alleles at two loci

shifting balance dynamics

strong support from the fossil record

Population divergence in isolation.

• RATIONALE: According to the Dobzhansky-Muller Model, when two populations diverge from a common ancestor and become isolated from each other, this results to absence of interbreeding between the two which resulted from the mutations that have accumulated in both populations. Thus, these changes represent evolutionary change in the populations. And when the two populations are reintroduced again to each other, these diverged genes can interact with each other in the hybridizing species.

Interacting alleles at two loci.

• RATIONALE: The Dobzhansky-Muller model of speciation postulates that defects in hybrids between species resulted from the negative epistatic interactions between alleles at two different loci that arose in independent genetic backgrounds.

Generally, the Dobzhansky-Muller Model is simply a research based explanation of why natural selection impacts speciation in such a way that when hybridization occurs between species, and the resulting offspring is genetically incompatible with other members of its species of origin.